admin Basic tests conducted on the plaster casts of these people revealed that asphyxiation was most likely the cause of death for seven victims of the volcanic eruption that buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, the study used portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology to better understand when people living in the city died. First, around 1870, plaster was injected into the cracks left by decaying bodies beneath the volcanic ash to make the first casts of Pompeii.
The casts retain the original shape of the body and contain skeletal fragments due to the way they were made. Although these molds provided information about the outbreak and its consequences, lime contamination made analysis of the biological material difficult.“The main components of chalk and bone are calcium-based, but the proportions of phosphorus vary,” says Gianni Gallello, lead researcher on the project and an archaeologist at the University of Valencia in Spain.
Researchers examined the elemental composition of six casts from the Porta Nola area of Pompeii and one from the Suburban Baths using portable XRF for the composition of bones cremated locally or buried in Valencia, Spain, before the eruption.
The scientists created a statistical model to distinguish the plaster cast from the bone in the plaster casts, focusing on the phosphorus/calcium ratios in the samples. According to Gallello, “Contaminated bones look a lot like chalk, while less contaminated bones look like burnt bones.”
The chemical processes that led to the leaching of carbonates and phosphates in are believed to be responsible for this similarity to charred bones . According to key information, the victims of Porta Nola died from hypoxia caused by inhaling ash before their bodies were buried under more volcanic material.
Victim &039; soft, relaxed positions and shaped bones. Experts say the chemical similarity to the burned bones suggests the cause of death was asphyxia. These results are confirmed by Piero Dellino, professor of volcanology at the University of Bari in Italy.
Neither the mechanics nor anything else killed anyone. He claims that people have died from inhaling the ash. The eruption lasted several minutes longer than one could breathe, and it wasn’t because it was hot. The value of teamwork in science is one of the key insights Gallello draws from this article. “A multidisciplinary approach is really essential for this type of research”; Complaints, complaints. To study these unusual remains, “this type of research really requires a multidisciplinary approach.”
Dellino agrees with this statement. Because this world is complicated, he claims, fragmenting research and focusing solely on the biological, ecological, environmental, or geological element doesn’t present the whole story.
According to Dellino, researching the past of the Vesuvius region enables people to both understand the past and plan for the future. The most dangerous volcano in the world is Vesuvius. 700,000 people are put in danger in the red zone [around] Vesuvius, he claims. If you study a thunderstorm or a significant flood, you learn virtually little about what happened at the time. However, after the occurrence, it’s like a crime scene: you can learn a lot about it and then create plans for [future] mitigation.
Source: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/elemen…
